An Agent's Story
by lisa602
Summary: Tahirih becomes a secret agent, becoming the most important agent of the PSA and later the EPF. She leaves her identity a secret, the amazing Agent Undefined to the agencies and plain Tahirih when blending back in to society. Herbert is her arch nemesis and she must foil all his plans in order to keep the island safe, though there are prices she will pay. (Mission Walkthroughs)
1. Prologue

This takes place on an island in the North Pole called club penguin, where penguins live almost like humans do. It has a secret agency called the PSA, the penguin secret agency, keeping the island safe and in order.

One afternoon, a penguin will be born, a black and white baby girl. Soon to have a sort of job with the PSA she never dreamed of at a younger age than most would believe.

This prophecy goes down generation after generation through agents of this phenomenal agency. Though not many believe it will happen, all think it to be a fantasy since it was thought of many hundreds of years ago.


	2. A Girl is Born

"Don't worry sweetheart, I can see the head through the shell here. It's moving," said Craft. He was a red business penguin whose wife, Velocity, was a pink schoolteacher penguin. They'd laid an egg some months ago and it was now cracking open.

Craft pondered for a while about the fact of becoming a father, but at this point he was excited to see the baby poke out from the inside of the hard shell.

"I'm not the one worrying here." Velocity joked.

"Oh, I was done worrying an hour ago." Craft said with a wave of his wing, attention still on the cracked egg.

After a few minutes, the egg started rocking violently. There were many taps on the egg, then a beak came through, squawking endlessly. This created a chain reaction, the opening and closing of the beak cracked the shell around it, making room for the beak to shift around some more.

Craft and Velocity stared wide-eyed as the egg cracked open, ending with a black baby penguin who stared at them the same way. They'd seen many egg openings whenever their friends wanted everyone to see their baby be born, this was unlike all those.

"That was interesting," Craft said, "I wonder if she's to be an exceedingly smart child."

Velocity laughed, waddling over to pick up the baby. She checked and said, "The baby's a girl." She waddled back over to Craft so they could admire their new-born baby.

"In a way, I now think it was a good idea to do this alone instead of with our friends to watch." Craft said, putting his flipper on Velocity's shoulder.

"Especially the way she opened the egg. Normally it's a lot of hard work for a baby, but she did it what looked to be pretty much the easy way." Velocity said, rocking the baby back and forth into a nap.

"Yeah, normally the baby is gasping for breath after getting the egg to open. She looks like she did nothing."

"Except for work her new brain." Velocity said, making Craft chuckle.

Craft waddled over to his bedroom to go on his computer to Skype, he was to call his and Velocity's parents on it so that they could name the baby. Velocity trailed behind him, cooing to the baby.

Their parents came on and looked at the baby with pride.

"I have a grandchild," they all said at once.

"Did you practice that just to creep us out?" Craft asked.

"Maybe," his mom said mischievously.

"So what do you think," Velocity interrupted, ending the conversation, "What do you think our baby girl should be called?"

All four of them collaborated for about ten minutes, Craft and Velocity listening intently for what they thought.

Finally, they stopped their conversation and said, "Tahirih."


	3. Fifteen Years Later

Tahirih sat in her room on Friday, June 23, 2006. "Why am I the one stuck with feeding the puffles?" she asked herself as she finished giving a red one a bath after it fell into the water from its surfboard. It's was as if it thought it wouldn't have to get wet.

She had a purple, a red, a pink, a black, and a green. Each were given to her by her boss, she still paid the money, but it was pretty much a gift from both of them. Yet she had to take care of all of them? She did work at the Pet Shop, but that didn't give her full custody over the puffles, did it?

A muffled noise from out in the hall distracted her from her thoughts. She stood up and waddled outside of her room to see Nalani fighting with Damper _again_.

Nalani was the second oldest, a tan twelve year old penguin with long brown hair. She and Tahirih were very close, closer than most sisters who normally fight on and off. They were more like BFF's.

Damper was the third, a light blue ten year old penguin with short blonde hair. He always annoyed Nalani, there were many times when he was younger that he pulled her hair and even pranked her into doing something she wouldn't normally do. Not that Tahirih knew of any of them, she would always be away and Nalani wouldn't want to talk about it.

"For the last time, stop going into my room!" Nalani shouted to the top of her lungs.

"Well ex_cuse_ me if I was just looking around." Damper said defensively.

"Looking? _Looking_? You weren't looking, you were snooping!" Nalani said unhappily, glaring down at him.

"Okay, so I peaked at your diary, what's the big deal?"

"That diary has all my secrets in it, _that's_ what the big deal is!"

When Damper didn't say anything, Nalani yelled. "Just stay out of my room!"

Tahirih silently wished to herself that her parents weren't working today. They could hear Laertes and Saturna, the two youngest children in the family, start crying.

Kelsey and Earagon came out of their rooms with wide eyes. Kelsey was a purple eight year old penguin with long black hair and Earagon was a dark blue six year old penguin with short brown hair.

"What's going on?" Earagon asked in his young, innocent voice.

As Tahirih passed by the two fighting penguins, she said to no one in particular, "Wonderful, as the eldest, my younger siblings fight and I have to settle things. I'll talk to you after I calm the two young ones down."

It turned out that both were in the same room, so that made it easier for Tahirih to calm them down. She sat Laertes and Saturna on her lap, one or the other sitting on one of her knees.

Both were fairly young. Laertes was an orange four year old penguin with short black hair and Saturna was a light green two year old penguin with red hair.

She calmed both down, making sure they knew everything was all right and then telling them a story. She calmed herself down with it as well, she loved stories full of adventure. She wondered when anything in her life would become as interesting as what she heard in the storybooks or by really good storytellers.

Waddling out of the playroom, she noticed Damper and Nalani right behind the door, listening in on the story as she had expected.

"I told you she heard you!" she shouted at him.

Tahirih put her flipper on Nalani's beak. "I don't think we need any more shouting around here, if you please. I have no more time to waste on making up another story to tell to our young siblings."

"I'm sorry, but Damper-"

"Hey, I-"

"Both of you, shush!" Tahirih said in a whisper. "Let me set some ground rules around here. No shouting. No snooping – or just looking around – other people's rooms unless they give permission. Am I clear?"

"Yes Tahirih." Nalani and Damper said together, glancing at each other.

"Good, now I need to get ready for work."


	4. Puffle Round-Up

Tahirih put on her uniform in her room, the puffles surrounding her excitedly. "No, you are not coming with me." she told them sternly.

She'd brushed her long blonde hair so much that morning that it was sleek and very straight. Looking in the mirror, she put in a blue butterfly brooch.

She wore a plain white shirt with green pants and a red name tag with her name on it. She brushed her hair some more to get rid of the tangles that came in from having to deal with the younger children.

"Do you have to?" asked Nalani from behind her.

Tahirih calmly turned around and told her, "Of course I have to. You know it's the law for penguins fourteen and older to have a job. I've had this job for a little over a year now, get a grip."

"Well, then, can you explain to Damper that I'm in charge until you get back? You know how he is." Nalani said resignedly.

"Sure," said Tahirih exasperatedly, "But I have limited time until my four hour shift starts." She set off towards Damper's room.

He was sitting on his bed playing video games when they got there.

Damper paused his game to look at them, showing his annoyance at their barge into his game time.

"Damper, while I'm gone, Nalani's in charge. Do as she says."

"What?!" he asked, not believing his hearing. But she didn't hear him as she was already on her way out of the igloo and off to the pet shop.

As soon as she got in, the familiar smell of puffles and birds filled her nostrils. To the right of the doorway was a pen of puffles for sale, and there cages of birds, cases of turtles, and aquariums of goldfish all around.

She soon spotted her boss, a green penguin in his early thirties with brown hair. He wore the uniform with the white shirt and green pants with the name tag saying Manager Tim. Hers said Employee Tahirih.

She instantly went out to meet the van, where Jimmy sat waiting at the driver's seat. He was a year older than her, at age seventeen and able to drive. Tahirih had to wait a couple of weeks before she could take the driver's test.

His blonde hair whipped around a bit as he turned to watch her get in, as he'd let it grow out a bit, and he was an orange penguin. Tahirih used to always tease him about being really bright.

"What took _you_ so long? Usually you're here before me." Jimmy asked as she got in, and he started the van, heading off towards the forest.

"My siblings, they were only being difficult." Tahirih said with a wave of her flipper.

Jimmy and Tahirih had been friends since they were younger, and both had decided that they would get a job where they could work together. They were happy to find that the Pet Shop was open for them.

They drove to the outskirts of town in the forest, looking around for a wide, open space. Once they found that, Jimmy parked the car and they worked together to take out the pen where they were going to round up a bunch of wild puffles into.

"All right, that has been set up," he said, closing the pen. "Now go get some, I'll be here like always."

Tahirih laughed. "Of course you don't want to come get them with me."

"What am I supposed to do?" he defended himself. "After the last black puffle bit me I'm a little iffy on whether they like me or not. Unlike me, you have a gift with them."

"All right, all right, I'll be back in a bit." Tahirih said with a smile, waddling away.

She came back with ten puffles in a variety of colors, bringing them into the pen with ease. Jimmy watched as she got all ten puffles within the pen without losing a single one, none of them had even tried to escape.

Jimmy closed the gate, locking it, and looked at Tahirih. "_How_ do you do that?" he asked. "I've been watching you do that for three years already and I still don't get it!"

Tahirih laughed and shrugged her shoulders helplessly.

"That's why I keep telling you that you have a gift with puffles." Jimmy said, waddling towards her. "So much that I can't think of a time when you made a puffle unhappy."

She smiled gratefully. "Well, I'm good with puffles and you're good with penguins." Tahirih said truthfully.

"Aw, back to that again? Come on!" Jimmy said.

"It's true though!" Tahirih protested. "I'm not as sociable as you are. I can't just start a conversation with someone like you. It's the reason _you_ already have a girlfriend!"

He couldn't come up with an argument for that.

"And you sure do _love_ her don't you?" Tahirih asked jokingly, wanting the subject to be changed.

"Yeah," he said agreeably, "More than anything. But, that does not stop my trust in my long-lasting friendship with you. Nothing will stop it."

"Very agreeable, nothing will change it." Tahirih said.


	5. The Test For the PSA

Tahirih got her pay for the day and waddled home, wanting to feel the fresh summer breeze.

She got to the house and was instantly plagued with problems.

"Tahirih! Damper disobeyed me!" Nalani instantly said.

"She didn't give a valid order!" Damper shouted back.

Laertes and Saturna started crying once again, so loudly that even though they were in the next room they had to cover their ears.

"Okay," Tahirih said, hoping to regain control, "Nalani, take Saturna, and Damper, take Laertes. Please calm them down and _don't talk_ to each other."

"What are you going to do, then?" Damper asked curiously.

"I will to go to my room, get dressed into casual clothes, and go out for a fresh breeze so that I don't have to worry about this anymore. I'm already tired of your nagging and I just got home."

Then she set off, leaving Damper and Nalani looking confused. She hurried up to her room, changing into a denim jacket, blue sneakers, and put on sunglasses since it seemed a very bright day.

Tahirih waddled around, feeling like she was waddling around for a reason other than just getting some fresh air.

When she waddled through the Snow Forts, there were many penguins throwing bunches of snowballs at each other. Many of them almost hit her, but she ducked and jumped out of the way, deciding the best option was to hide behind the tower.

As she hid there, Tahirih felt something under her foot and looked down. 'It's just a packet,' she thought, picking it up to read what it said. She was shocked as she read:

**SECRET AGENTS**

_We are looking for a few good penguins to help make Club Penguin the best it can be._

_We need the help of Secret Agent Penguins to help be our eyes and ears throughout the Club Penguin world._

Tahirih thought this through, and then decided to just work through it for the fun of it – thinking it to be a prank someone could pull. So, at the top right hand corner of the front page, she took out a red colored pencil she brought with her and put _Agent_. Then she read on:

**YOUR MISSION**

_As a Secret Agent Penguin:_

_Report players that are using bad language, being mean, or breaking any of the other rules._

_Help other penguins so they can have the best experience possible._

_Keep your identity and the identity of other Secret Agent Penguins a secret._

**THE REWARDS**

_If you choose to accept this mission:_

_You will get a spy phone. You will get access to the Super Secret Agent Headquarters. This will allow you to hang out with other agents after a long day of keeping the peace._

**ARE YOU SURE**

Tahirih realized the test was valid enough to be real. Looking through it, it had all the codes said to tell the truth. It was real. Was she sure she should go on? Though she thought against it, she held her pen ready and read on, shading these answers:

_Are you ready to take the challenge to become a secret agent?_

_Yes_

_No_

_Pick the quality that you think a secret agent should have._

_Popular_

_Honest_

_In charge_

_Pick the correct reason to report a penguin to a moderator._

_Throwing snowballs at you_

_Not being your buddy_

_Being mean or rude_

_What would you do if you saw a penguin breaking the rules?_

_Yell at them_

_Report them_

_Throw snowballs at them_

_Which type of personal information should be reported?_

_Saying their country_

_Saying boy or girl_

_Saying their address_

_Pick one reason why you want to be a secret agent._

_My friends are secret agents_

_I want a spy phone_

_I want to keep Club Penguin safe_

_Pick another reason why you want to be a secret agent._

_I've always wanted to be a spy_

_I want to help other penguins_

_I want to hang out at HQ_

**THANK YOU**

_Your application will be sent to the Club Penguin Team, just leave it where it is and put your address on it._

_We will check your application and if you are accepted a spy phone will appear at the front door of your igloo. If not, please try again later._

Tahirih wrote: If I pass, place the phone underneath the Clock Tower where no one but I will find it. Then she placed the packet where she'd found it before, taking care that it wouldn't fly away before leaving.

It was a whole week later before Tahirih found the phone underneath the Clock Tower, and she knew for sure that the test had been valid. The phone was high tech and looked like a fairly expensive piece of machinery. Yet, she'd gotten it for free.

There was another sheet of paper underneath the Clock Tower, which Tahirih picked up and read. It was a postcard with a picture of a red spy penguin wearing a suit, bow tie and shades. It said: Welcome to the PSA Agent Undefined. On the top left corner there was what seemed to be the logo, which was a fish with the words PSA underneath it.

Tahirih almost laughed out loud. Agent Undefined. She liked how mysterious it seemed to make her character.

Looking closely at the spy phone, Tahirih saw the different functions as she looked at it. There was the long range antenna, a blinking light that (when she pressed it) revealed spy gadgets (wrench, scissors, and comb), a view screen where she could see the place she would go to with a teleporter scroll where she scrolled between names, then the button where she would click to teleport, the auditory impulse receptor, and the HQ entry button. She didn't press anything yet, wanting to check it out a little more.

She waddled home, wondering if she should tell Jimmy about what she did. Would he try to become a part of the PSA, too, in order to stay close together? She wasn't sure… but she knew she couldn't tell her family, or anyone else, that was for certain. But Jimmy…

Once inside the house, she instantly went to her room, feeling torn. She most likely wasn't allowed to tell anyone. But then… she knew Jimmy would keep the secret, but yet she couldn't for she would bend the rules. She thought then that she should wait until there came a time she would have to tell, which would most likely happen.

Tahirih looked at herself in the mirror, thinking she should go to HQ looking differently, in case anyone should recognize her. Looking at her hair first, she wondered about what she could do to change it…

Waddling out again, Tahirih went to the gift shop and bought a can of hair color changer of a sort of white and a suit. Just to check out the hair color, and then she went back to her igloo, and locked her bedroom door to start the experimentation.

After spraying her hair, Tahirih looked into the mirror again, liking what she saw. Putting on the sunglasses, she had white hair in a ponytail and really looked like an agent with the suit.

Looking back at the phone, she opened it and pressed the button to visit HQ. She was transported into a room where there wasn't much to see, just a small room with nothing but secret agents all around. Every single one looking serious and, or, nervous.

Tahirih waddled toward a big green book at the right corner of the room where there were missions that any agent could take, and a blue agent writing down who was taking which mission. She looked through it and found the Case of the Missing Puffles.

"I'll take the Case of the Missing Puffles," Tahirih said confidently.

The blue agent looked at her like she was nuts, but went to her list to check it off anyways. "Name?"

"Agent," Tahirih said, "Just Agent."

"Oh, so you're the one who only used Agent? Your full name shall be Agent Undefined until such notice as you change it. Am I clear?" the blue agent asked.

"Perfectly, but it's not likely that I will change it." Tahirih said, deciding to go for being a defiant sort of agent. She liked the idea, as long as she kept herself in character for the job being as she was likely to have to talk to other penguins.

"All right then," the blue agent said, "Now are you sure you want to take this case? It's the hardest of all of these, even agents more experienced than you have tried to do this one and have come back confused."

"Puffles? Difficult? Those agents must be more inexperienced than you realize if they can't find _puffles_." Tahirih said.

The blue agent sneered, "You think you're so perfect? Well, good luck trying to clear this case. Go to the house of Aunt Arctic, it's now been placed into your phone so that you can transport there. Good luck."

"Thank you, sir."

"Here's the info," he said, giving her a folder with important looking papers in it. "Read it _carefully_."

Tahirih nodded and waddled away, reading the info.

_AUNT ARCTIC, FAMOUS REPORTER FOR_

_THE Club Penguin TIMES, IS VERY_

_UPSET, BECAUSE TWO OF HER PET_

_PUFFLES ARE MISSING! WILL YOU TAKE_

_THE CHALLENGE OF RESCUING THEM?_

_MISSION:_

_AUNT ARCTIC… FAMOUS REPORTER FOR THE_

CLUB PENGUIN _TIMES… HAS LOST TWO OF HER_

_PET PUFFLES._

_IT IS YOUR ASSIGNMENT TO FIND AND RESCUE_

_THEM._

She took out her phone when she knew for sure that she was ready for the challenge. Taking a deep breath, she pressed the button to go to Aunt Arctic's house. She was the most famous reporter that worked for the Club Penguin Times, it would be an honor for Tahirih to find her puffles.


	6. Case of the Missing Puffles

Tahirih now saw herself in a new igloo with a nice living space and a couple puffles sitting there, now watching her. Right there was Aunt Arctic, looking as if she had been expecting her.

"Thank goodness someone is here to help me! I think some of my puffles are in trouble! They're missing!" she said, her wings dramatically raised into the air. She was a green penguin with glasses and a pink hat.

"When did this happen?" Tahirih asked, wondering exactly how long this mission had been there for if there had already been some agents who tried and failed to complete this mission.

"It happened an hour ago!" Aunt Arctic said. 'Wow' Tahirih thought, 'Some penguins are being overly dramatic.' "I was doing some reporting for the Club Penguin Times, so I brought my camera with me to take pictures."

"What happened next?"

"Two of my puffles must have hidden in my camera bag, because when I got home, I saw that they were missing, and my camera was gone too!" Aunt Arctic was hysterical by then.

"Could you describe your puffles for me?" Tahirih knew it would be too much to be checking for two particular puffles when she wasn't sure what kind they were nor what they were like.

"The green one loves to explore and be goofy, and the purple one likes to take pictures." Aunt Arctic said, taking a bit to think on it.

"Don't worry Aunt Arctic I'll find them." Tahirih assured her.

"Oh, please find my puffles! I need to know that they are safe!"

Tahirih nodded and left the igloo, waddling to the Pet Shop first. That seemed like the best option for her, since she couldn't look anywhere else. This was quite something that she was now doing something she knew best, since it seemed fair she do a job she knew how to do. She usually had to find them in the woods of course, but in larger groups which were easy to spot being so colorful.

Reaching the Pet Shop, and getting inside, there were the normal puffles in the pet box. The pet shop was always left open, and right then it was even empty of employees and employer. There was the black, green, pink, and blue puffles left there. There were all the other pets, no one was in the shop since it was closed, but Tahirih saw a note pinned to one of the wooden pufflehouses... she'd noticed it before, but since it'd had no importance to her she'd never paid attention to it. A perfect code note.

Looking at the note, she took out her info packet and looked at a sheet she was given with a code breaker on it. The note was in the same code, so she quickly worked through it until she knew the strange answer:

G has sixty nine pairs of socks

Huh? Tahirih thought this through, suddenly thinking of Gary the Gadget Guy. He worked part time at the Sport Shop, Tahirih's favorite place, could he be what this was talking about? Then she thought about the fact of how it was said that he had some special items in the shop that anyone could use if they could answer him a simple question. No one had gotten it as far as she knew.

Taking the note with her, she instantly went to the Sport Shop in the Ski Village, feeling excited. Tahirih loved the Sport Shop, she mostly liked to sit around in there looking through the catalogs, but not as much as she did with the book room.

Waddling in, she saw Gary standing there behind the counter, alone in the store. He was a dark blue penguin with a white lab coat and glasses.

"Hello!" he greeted cheerfully. "It's a beautiful day on the ski hill! Can I get you something?"

"Yes, please!" Tahirih said.

"Check out the catalog for everything you need to get around Club Penguin with style!" he said, and she wondered if he even paid attention to the fact she had shades on... in his store.

"Do you have any _special_ items?" Tahirih asked, putting an emphasis on the 'special,' and Gary caught on quickly.

"Well there are some other special items… You can take a look at them, if you can answer this question… How many pairs of socks do I own?" Gary seemed absolutely sure that Tahirih wouldn't get it right.

"Sixty Nine. This is my answer!" Tahirih said.

Gary looked a little startled, but smiled warmly. "Oh! So you are a secret agent? Pleased to meet you! My name is 'G', and I invent all of the spy gadgets"

Well, now she knew why he was the gadget guy. "May I see some spy gadgets?" she asked.

"Sure, just follow me." G said, waddling to the wooden wardrobe right next to his desk and opening it. There was a machine with life preservers in them and a rope with a grappling hook attached. "Here is some spy equipment I've invented that might come in handy. Take what you need."

Tahirih had a feeling that she would need to use both, so she picked them both up, and then left the store.

She waddled out of there and went out to the Ice Rink to look around. She found something there that she didn't think she would actually find. Off to the corner of the stadium were pictures of the green puffle, and Tahirih could only guess that it was Aunt Arctic's.

Tahirih waddled back to Aunt Arctic's igloo to give her the photos. And Aunt Arctic was more than thrilled.

"Oh. Thank you! I've been so worried about my puffles, but these photos tell me that you must be on the right track. Now I know you can find my puffles!" Aunt Arctic only looked at the pictures as she said this, so after that, Tahirih went over to the ski hill to see if she could see anything from that point.

What Tahirih didn't expect was a tan penguin standing there with a telescope, and he looked worried.

"I just saw some penguins in trouble on the iceberg! They look stranded!"

That was all it took to get Tahirih racing to the iceberg where she looked around and, indeed, there was a group of teen penguins standing on a part of the iceberg that must've broken off and floated away.

"Help, help!" one shouted.

"How did this happen?" she asked them.

"Too many of us waddled to the edge of the iceberg at the same time… and the part we were standing on broke off! We started to float away!"

"Don't worry, I'll find some way to help you!" she said, taking out the life preserver shooter.

"Thanks!"

Tahirih started shooting life preservers out to their little iceberg and each penguin caught one and swam back to where she was with the life preservers. She had to use the direction of the wind to get each one, but she never ran out of life preservers to shoot, though she'd lost several of them.

Out of all of them, the green penguin of the group gave Tahirih the best information needed when she pulled him from the rest of them to ask about what happened. When he said it, she just had to suppose that he'd seen them and moved to the edge to get a better look.

"I saw two puffles. One had a propeller cap on, and the other was carrying a camera. They flew away, but I don't know where…" the green penguin looked unsure, as if he thought he was a little crazy. "If I was higher up, maybe I could have seen where they went."

Tahirih left to the ski hill within a blink of an eye. But when she got there, the tan penguin was in tears and the telescope was detached from its stand. The penguin instantly went into an explanation.

"I was using my homemade telescope to look around Club Penguin, and it fell apart!... Oh, please help me fix my telescope. If you do, I'll let you look through it! Please, will you help?"

Tahirih went to work, selecting a wrench from her spy tools in her phone, and placing the telescope on the stand, used the wrench to screw it back in. She was finished within about a minute.

"Thank you so much! I'll let you look through it!" the penguin was overjoyed.

Tahirih looked into the telescope and looked around Club Penguin. She stopped when she saw a green puffle with a propeller cap flying around the tallest mountain in Club Penguin.

Getting to the mountain, she looked up, it was so high that she almost fell over backwards. Gulping, she took out the grappling hook, hoping she would be able to hook it correctly and get it up there. Nonetheless, she took the grappling hook, spun it around in her flippers a bit and threw it up. Surprisingly, it reached the top and stayed strong.

Tahirih climbed up the rope, dreading the thought of falling down it, but she reached the top alive. And there she met up with the green puffle, who flew right to where she reached the top and smiled at her.

"Hey, you must be one of Aunt Arctic's missing puffles." Tahirih said, and then the green puffle flew away to where the purple puffle sat in front of the camera, taking another picture. The two puffles smiled at each other. "Come, puffles. Let's go back to Aunt Arctic's igloo."

Back at Aunt Arctic's igloo, Aunt Arctic held her puffles closely to herself, looking absolutely overjoyed.

"You've found my puffles! I'm so glad they're safe!"

"Happy to help, Aunt Arctic. I found them at the top of the tallest mountain!" Tahirih told her.

"The tallest mountain? Why were they up there?" Aunt Arctic asked curiously.

"The purple puffle was taking a picture, maybe to help with the Newspaper." Tahirih said with a shrug. She was just happy to have found the puffles.

"Oh, that makes sense. Ever since I got it, it has loved to take pictures with my camera." Aunt Arctic said, smiling at the purple puffle with happiness and pride.

"I'd love to stay and talk some more, but I have to go back to Headquarters now." Tahirih said, wanting a good reason to get away so that she didn't have to listen to Aunt Arctic talk about her puffles' characteristic and personalities.

"Thank you for doing such a good job, not only in bringing my puffles back to me, but helping others around you…" Aunt Arctic said. 'She knew about the iceberg stranding? Oh, boy.' "If I need any more help in the future, you'll be the one I call!"

That meant a lot, especially from the infamous Aunt Arctic. "See you again sometime. Good-bye!"

"Good-bye!" she said, still holding on to her green and purple puffles tightly.

In fact, Aunt Arctic went with her back to HQ. She talked with some agents and in the end Tahirih got two awards for her great work on accomplishing her first ever mission. She got a medal and a letter, which she waited until she got home to take a look at, because she wanted to witness the blue penguin's surprise at how good she did for a newbie. Another thing she was told, by no other than Gary the Gadget Guy, was that she need only come in when he sends her a message for a mission he'll trust her with. 'Such a big deal over the puffle case,' Tahirih thought.

At home, she took a look at her new prizes as she washed the white color out of her hair. The medal was an exact replica of the two puffles, one with the camera and the other with the propeller cap, made out of gold. The letter was the one that Tahirih liked the most. It said:

Dear Agent:

You went above and beyond the call of duty. I know you must take your role as a secret agent very seriously. Bringing me pictures of my missing puffles was extremely thoughtful and helped me while I waited for my puffles to come home. I don't know how they ever would have found their way back if it wasn't for your skill during the mission. It is a comfort to know such great agents are working for the PSA.

As thanks for your extra hard work, here is the photograph that my puffle took on the top of the mountain. I'd like you to have it.

Sincerely,

Aunt Arctic

Tahirih looked at the photograph of the point of view from the top of the mountain, it looked just as she remembered it. Underneath the picture was written: HIGHEST POINT IN Club Penguin.

This was the best letter she'd ever gotten in her entire life, and there was no possible way that she wanted to ever throw it away. It felt sacred.


	7. Back to School

"Tahirih, wake up!" her father, Craft, called out.

It was a Monday morning, the first day of school on September 1, 2006 and about three months since the Case of the Missing Puffles. Tahirih, Nalani, Damper, Kelsey, and Earagon were being woken up to get ready for it.

Tahirih moaned, but dragged herself out of bed, and got dressed into a plaid red shirt with black sneakers and put on her new glasses. She'd made sure to damage her eyesight a bit so that she could put on glasses for school and made sunglasses for agent work with her prescription so that she wouldn't have to worry much of it.

Putting different ponytails in her hair, but still keeping it full, she thought of all the arrangements she'd made though she hadn't done agent work since June.

She'd put a security camera in a small space in the room behind her fireplace where no one would see or find it, and made a secret space behind the fireplace to keep her awards and agent objects. Placing a crevice in the stone where she would push it to make the fireplace move off to the side to show the secret room. Tahirih was proud of her work, having done it all herself, it took a whole lot of work.

She grabbed her blue backpack full of her new schoolbooks and went to the dining room for breakfast where all the rest of her siblings were eating breakfast. Their moods ranged from excitement to despair, the oldest wanting school to end already and the youngest excited to get going.

"Tahirih!" shouted a voice from outside the igloo.

Tahirih grabbed her bag, leaving the cereal she was having unfinished and just started hurriedly waddling out of the igloo. "Bye mom, bye dad, bye guys, have a great day at school!"

"Who is out there?" her mother, Velocity asked.

"It's Jimmy, I'll be hanging out with him after school, so later!" and Tahirih was out the door, running into Jimmy's truck. "I am here!"

"I see that, little miss late." Jimmy said jokingly, starting the car and backing out of the driveway.

"No need to be snippy, I always wait until you call, and besides I at least abandoned my breakfast... I'm surprised your girlfriend isn't here in the front seat, you haven't seen her all summer." Tahirih said.

Jimmy hadn't seen his girlfriend, Tias, over the summer because both of them had work at the same time the other had a break, so they couldn't talk. He'd been excited all summer for school to start back up again so that he could see her.

"She hasn't returned my messages of asking her, so I thought I'd just leave it alone and wait until we got to school." Jimmy said.

'Sounds like she's planning a surprise,' Tahirih thought to herself, but she didn't say it aloud, instead thinking of telling him of something else. "Have you ever thought about becoming a secret agent?"

He looked up at her in surprise, stopping the car along the side of the road, for which Tahirih was grateful. They had a while before school was to start. "Um, w-why do you ask? What do you know?"

It was Tahirih's turn to look surprised. "I… uh… did a test back in June, which I found underneath the Clock Tower, and… ah… became a secret agent."

"No way!" Jimmy said, punching her lightly on the wing. "I did the same thing! Except, what time did you come? Actually, wait a minute, no, I know every agent in there, what agent are you?"

She snorted. "It's really funny actually. I only put 'Agent' on my test as a name, so now I am Agent Undefined."

His beak dropped open. "_You're_… no…! You can't be! Really? You're Agent Undefined? But…"

"But what? What is so strange about it?" Tahirih asked in shock.

"Agent Undefined is so off character for you," Jimmy said, "She talked back to an agent her first day, and she solved her very first case with no problem."

"It wasn't that hard a mission, remember I'm good with puffles, I knew how and where to look." Tahirih said. "Besides, I had a feeling I would need to make myself totally different from my usual personality, so I went for someone who wouldn't care what other people think of her. I don't care how the other agents talk to me as Agent Undefined, but as Tahirih it's different."

"No one talks smack about you as Tahirih, but really! As Agent Undefined, every single agent talks about you nonstop. They're all making these little myths about you. That you come from another island where you are a skilled agent, or that you came once for a reason and won't come back. They mostly don't want you to come back, because it might demote some of them." Jimmy said, watching Tahirih with awe. "But knowing it's you, I'm proud! Because I know how hard it is for you to not act like yourself."

Tahirih hugged him gratefully. "Glad to know my character as Agent Undefined won't lead anything back to the real me."

When he pulled away, he started the car again and drove off to school. "Maybe you could show me how you made yourself look so different when you are Agent Undefined at a time when you get a new mission?"

"No problem," Tahirih said, "I'll just call you when I get the info for a new mission and you'll get to see how I completely change my appearance."

"Yes!" Jimmy said excitedly.

Then Tahirih was curious. "What is _your_ name as an agent?" she asked.

He chuckled softly. "I went with Agent _Smooth_ Flippers."

Tahirih could not suppress her laughter; she broke out into hysterical laughs, clutching the pain in her side. "I… should… have… guessed! Ha!" she said between laughs.

"You should've seen my expression when I heard the name Agent Undefined." Jimmy said with broad grin.

"Oh, I wish I saw it! I'm making a fool of myself now, and I've never seen you do that grin before." Tahirih said, calming down as the school building was getting closer and closer.

Jimmy sighed.

"What?" Tahirih asked curiously.

"Hard to think I'm now a senior and you a junior. I'm graduating this year, and I wonder how you're going to do next year without me." Jimmy said, almost like a joke, but his expression was serious.

"Well, where are you planning to go to college? It all depends, I'm sure we'll both be fine. We'd still be in the PSA together, I'm sure, so it's not like we'd be totally done with each other." Tahirih said.

He was quiet a moment. Contemplating his next words, as thought they might anger Tahirih, but they only surprised her. "I'm not going to college…" he said softly.

"What?! Why?" she asked in shock. This was not the answer she was expecting.

He took a deep breath. "I've already felt high school pressures, and I'll most likely feel more this year. They feel over my head, you know… homework and responsibility. I won't be able to handle college if it's even more intense."

Tahirih looked down at her feet, not really knowing what to say. She thought he was most definitely going to college, and growing up together had made it seem as though they would both certainly be in college with each other. And if Jimmy wasn't, then Tahirih didn't know if she wanted to be in college without him.

"Well, no point in fretting over it," Tahirih said, surprising Jimmy immensely, "We both know that agent work would certainly clash with school work, so it would probably do worse for college. I understand."

Jimmy took a moment before smiling… a very charming smile. "When did I become so lucky as to have a great friend like you?"

"All since you were the age of five." Tahirih said with a small smile. She opened the window and poked her head out of it, feeling the cool wind on her face. The school was very close now, and she wondered what the year would be like, since it was the year where she'd be doing a whole lot of testing for exams and whatnot. She sighed, "I'm going to _dread_ this year."

Jimmy chuckled. "If I survived last year, then you'll most certainly be able to survive this year. Don't worry about it."

"I hope so," Tahirih muttered as Jimmy found his way into the parking lot, "There's going to be a large workload though."

"Because Miss 'I Want Good Scholarships' just had to give herself honors classes. I, on the other hand, kept myself to regular classes." Jimmy said.

"No need to act like I'm all dramatic about it, not that I believe I'll get scholarships if I do terribly in those honors classes." Tahirih said. "I'm not even going for A.P. classes, because it is _those_ that I am certain I will be signing my death warrant in."

"At least you have your brain there." Jimmy said with a chuckle as he parked the car and moved to get out.

Tahirih came out of the car, closing the door, and looked around. It was the time to get used to the workload and stresses again. It was the time where she'd go home and start working on homework immediately or go to the library either by herself or with Jimmy to study for upcoming tests and quizzes.

"Same old school," Tahirih commented, "Even though they did a bunch of construction while we were on break… it's still the same."

"True, but at least they fixed some of the problems from the previous year. As they always have to do for each year, I think." Jimmy said as they started waddling toward the entrance.

Once inside, Tahirih saw a blur and saw Jimmy crash to the floor with Tias right on top of him, kissing his face. She could not stop laughing at this. Tias was a green penguin with her long black hair in a ponytail.

"Tias! I missed you!" Jimmy said, holding her face in his flippers and looking her over.

"I missed you, too! I'm so sorry I didn't message you back, but I wanted to surprise you instead." Tias said.

"I had a feeling," Tahirih said, chuckling, and holding out her flipper, "Come on. Let me help you up."

Tias took Tahirih's flipper gratefully. "So you came to school with Jimmy?"

"Yeah," she said, helping Jimmy up as well, "He drove me and I asked him about where you were. When he said you didn't message him back, I literally thought to myself that you were going to surprise him. I just didn't expect it as soon as he waddled through the front door."

"Oh, yes, I have a present!" Tias said excitedly, pulling Jimmy by his flipper over to her backpack where she rummaged through it for something.

Jimmy looked back at Tahirih with a source of despair… he hadn't gotten anything for Tias.

Tahirih had a feeling he should thank his lucky stars that she'd bought a necklace some month before to see if it would look good with her style as an agent. But, after she'd bought it, she realized her character might not be the kind to wear jewelry unless it was necessary, and for that she certainly wouldn't wear jewels.

She took the necklace out of her backpack, having put it in there because she wanted some way to get rid of it. It was a red diamond heart on a silver chain. She tossed it to Jimmy who took it and stuffed it into his pocket.

Right after that small fiasco, Tias came from her backpack with a silver watch that Jimmy looked at with shock. "Tias! This must've cost you a fortune!" he said as she fitted it upon his wrist with enthusiasm.

"Well?" she asked, not taking notice of his shocked surprise. "What did you get me?"

Tahirih did not expect that. Something was off about this. But she said nothing, because Jimmy did _get her_ something.

"Why yes I did," Jimmy said, taking no notice of Tahirih's thoughts that her question seemed a little off, and that Tias looked at him with a shock that looked like terror. He took out the necklace, "This is it!"

"And you said I was the one who paid a lot." Tias mumbled, looking at it with awe and amazement.

"Oh no, this didn't cost a lot. Right, Tahirih? You were there with me. Tell her how much this necklace cost." Jimmy said, seemingly nervous.

Tahirih inwardly sighed. It didn't seem like a good relationship anymore. "Fifty coins."

"See? I earn a lot more coins than that!" Jimmy said to Tias, turning her around and placing the necklace around her neck.

The bell rang… five minutes until the first class of the year.

"See you later, Jimmy!" Tahirih said, waddling away and wondering how this year would be going. She was now part of the PSA, Jimmy was in a relationship with Tias when it seemed she was just trying to find a way to break up with him, and Tahirih herself had to get through her junior year.


	8. G's Secret Mission

It was about two months later on November 26, 2006 on a Sunday night before a week of Thanksgiving break, and Tahirih was just finishing up her homework. She'd been doing well, getting A's and B's in all of her classes, and making sure to fix anything lower than that. She wanted a perfect year.

Tahirih kept telling Jimmy that he shouldn't let his relationship with Tias go any longer, because she had been making more trouble with trying to end the entire thing. Every time she tried, however, he changed the subject immediately.

What she couldn't understand is that Tias was actually trying to get him to break up with her instead of having herself break up with him. Tahirih had decided that she would try having a talk with Tias on the subject. In order to spare any more failed attempts.

Suddenly, her spy phone started beeping. Looking at it, it was a new mission:

G, THE BRILLIANT INVENTOR FOR THE

PENGUIN SECRET AGENCY, NEEDS

YOUR HELP WITH ONE OF HIS NEWEST

PROJECTS. WHAT COULD G BE UP TO

NOW?

"Oh, how lovely." Tahirih said to herself. Then she used her own cellphone to call Jimmy, remembering the promise she gave to him. "Hey, Jimmy, I've just been called on a mission. Come to my house tomorrow morning, I'll be getting ready."

"YES!" he shouted from the other end, hanging up.

Tahirih chuckled, and put her laptop away. She got into her pajamas and settled into bed, setting her alarm clock to nine o'clock in the morning.

She woke up, though not by her alarm clock. Jimmy was right there in her face looking excited.

"Morning!" he said.

She remembered to herself that she should've set a time for him to come. Turning off her alarm before it could ring, she pulled herself out of bed, but then she had that usual feeling every time she woke up early in the morning. She lay back down, feeling sleepy, and closed her eyes.

"Get up, Tahirih!" Jimmy said, pulling her out of bed, causing her to land on the ground with a thud.

"Ugh, I hate feeling tired." Tahirih said, hoisting herself up off the ground and waddling toward her fireplace, opening into her secret place. Looking back at Jimmy, she laughed at his expression.

He was shocked and started waddling around in there, looking around in amazement at the award she put on a shelf and the letter she pinned to a bulletin board. Then to the clothes she wore for it, and the things she used for her hair. As well as the sunglasses and a silver wristwatch she'd bought to help herself keep up with the time.

"All right, first I need to beautify myself." Tahirih said, chuckling as he waddled around. She sat down by her hair things. To her surprise, Jimmy quickly sat down in a chair next to her to watch.

She sprayed her hair white and then worked to place it into a ponytail again. But this time she fumbled with it and her hair fell out in strands.

"Here," Jimmy said, standing up and waddling behind her, "Let me help."

"Thanks." Tahirih said gratefully.

Tahirih felt him take out the hair scrunchie she'd been using and then take the brush from beside her to brush her hair through again. As he did so, she couldn't help but feel a shiver go down her back. She'd never felt _that_ before... though he'd helped her with her hair, most often when they were little.

Once he'd fixed it into the ponytail, he noticed the sunglasses and the watch. He fixed the watch on her and then inspected the sunglasses. "The lenses look a little different."

"Well, I had to because of how I'd damaged my eyesight. I switched the lenses so that they could fit my prescription." Tahirih said shyly.

"Oh!" he outburst, placing the sunglasses on her. "You damaged your eyesight on purpose! I _knew_ it didn't just accidentally happen."

Tahirih laughed. "Correct."

She then stood up and waddled over to her clothing, and there was another suit she chose for wearing to the agency. It just didn't seem right wearing the exact same one every time she had a mission.

Taking it off of the hanger, she showed it to Jimmy, who looked at it thoroughly. "Certainly looks like something Agent Undefined would wear!" he said cheerfully. He then waddled out to allow her to get dressed.

Tahirih waddled out to meet Jimmy, and closed the fireplace over the secret space as she did so. He was seated on her bed, looking around as if he had just realized something while she was getting ready, and now she was ready to go.

"All good? I need to go now?" Jimmy asked.

"You do what you want, I'll be back. Maybe you can be sure that I come back and aren't just stranded somewhere." Tahirih said with a chuckle. Jimmy didn't laugh.

"What if that does happen? What do I do then?" he asked.

"Oh, it's not likely that anything terrible will happen to me. But, I guess, if anything does, then you can swear me to something that I'll come back home safe and sound." Tahirih said.

"All right. I'll stay here until you come back, I promise you that. You go, and I want you to promise that you'll come back today. If you don't, then I'll go looking for you after forty eight hours go by. If you come back after twenty four hours, however, I'll kill you." Jimmy said. "Promise me you follow that."

"Yes, I promise I do." Tahirih said with a small laugh, wondering why he sounded so protective all of a sudden. Though 'I'll kill you' sounds serious, which it is, but not in the way one would think. To Tahirih and Jimmy, it means that – in relationship to what he said – he expects her to come back within a certain space of time, if she comes back way later – in this case twenty four hours or less than forty eight hours – he'd be worried sick by that time. Worried that she either got kidnapped or killed... which could happen.. possibly.

He hugged her. "Be safe."

"Be sound." Tahirih said. Then she backed away from him and pressed the button to go to HQ.

She got more info when she got there, and was left confused:

SECRET AGENT G HAS YOUR MISSION IN THE SPORT SHOP.

YOU WILL BE ASKED TO PROVE YOU ARE AN AGENT BEFORE HE ASSIGNS YOU THE MISSION.

Tahirih waddled out of the PSA door to see where it led out to, knowing that it had to lead out somewhere. To her luck, she ended up in the Sport Shop where G stood behind the counter. She waddled toward him.

"Hello." G said, again very cheerfully. "Welcome to my shop! Are you looking for something specific?"

"I'm here to receive my mission." Tahirih said, wondering how she would prove herself.

"I might have a mission if you can solve this riddle…" G said mysteriously. 'Great,' Tahirih thought, 'riddles are just what I need.' "To find the secret word look near a lively game; pointing to a path with a rabbit in its name."

He was done. And Tahirih thought of the Ski Hill where there were the different sled courses. The Bunnyhill was what G was talking about, and she remembered the pole on the top that had the different arrows where she had never known what they were there for. Every time she'd looked, they had strange codes on it. She had that code now!

Tahirih went quickly out the door and up the Ski Hill where the signs were. Looking at that and her code list, she quickly figured out what it was. She went back to G.

"Did you find the secret word?" G asked.

"Mogul." Tahirih said. "This is the word!"

"Excellent work!" G said, extremely impressed. "Are you ready to receive your mission?"

"Yes." Tahirih said simply, wanting to get the mission over with.

"Great! Let's get started." G said. He then waddled over to the wardrobe Tahirih had seen from the last mission, but now there was something beside it under a cloth. He took the cloth off and there looked to be a sled. It had a seat, pair of skis, an anvil in the front, and a pan for the wheel. "Your mission is to test drive my new sled. This is the first prototype, so we have to make sure it's safe."

Tahirih had the feeling that she was going to die. This was her mission? Surely G wanted her to die. Oh well, she had already said she would take it.

"You will need to go to the top of the ski mountain to get started. Have fun sledding, but be careful!" G said.

'I don't much like this sled,' Tahirih thought to herself as she picked up the sled and waddled away from G to the top of the Ski Hill. She got to the top and swallowed, wondering how she would keep her promise to Jimmy should she get hurt.

There was no time, she put the sled down, sat down in it, and pushed it forward.

It was a strange thing. The side she went on for the test run for the prototype sled had many rocks and signs of danger as she got into it. She hit into things and all the objects were falling off. Tahirih was panicking now, she made one bad turn, and _crash_!

She opened her eyes and remembered the crash. Tahirih was in the wilderness, alone and without Jimmy and his truck. She took out her phone, there was no service.

'Oh no,' she thought, 'Jimmy is going to kill me. I cannot be stuck out here! Oh, someone needs to find me before night or else.' Or else what? Jimmy said he'd kill her, but since her didn't mean it what would he do?

First things first, she saw a survival guide that she hadn't noticed before. She picked it up and read through the first page:

Dear Agent,

I assume since you are reading

this guidebook you have run into

some problems with my sled. I

have put together a few tips that

will help you survive in the

wilderness until you are rescued. I

threw this guide together at the

last minute, so the tips provided

are not in any particular order.

Tahirih sighed. She knew the points for survival, so she didn't really need the guide, but she kept it with her in case she needed it later.

Looking around in her general area, she picked up a piece of rope. Everything else was broken. Then she left from there to waddle toward a puffle-o bush. She picked up three of them, wondering if she may need them to fish.

She saw a tree where, at the top, there was the pan she used for the steering wheel. 'That could be useful,' she thought. So, standing at the bottom, she shook the tree until the pan fell out, and then she picked it up.

She waddled towards a tree stump she saw. What she hadn't expected was to see the different colors of puffles dancing around. But since she hadn't expected them, she hadn't moved as slowly as she should have so once they saw her, they instantly scattered.

Another unexpected thing was that a black puffle stayed behind. It just looked back at her defiantly, as if running away from her was most likely the dumbest idea and that she wouldn't do any sort of harm.

Correct it was. For Tahirih took out one of the puffle-o's and handed it to the puffle who ate it. Then it burst into fire and flew around until it landed, this time it was smiling at her. This was the oddest thing, for black puffles were usually so sour. She actually found one that could show happiness!

She then waddled away to a point where she saw a ski, that wasn't broken, stuck within a bush. Tahirih took it out, then she had an idea. She took out the rope and tied it to the ski… she had a fishing pole. Of sorts. Then she attached a puffle-o to it.

Tahirih waddled around, the black puffle following her along, until she found a stream. There was a piece of wood by the side, and she took that as well, knowing she may need to make a fire. Then she took out the pan and dipped it in the stream, filling it to the top with water. Then, taking out the 'fishing pole,' she threw the end with the puffle-o in the water, and then seconds later pulled out a fish.

Gathering all her things, she went in the direction of a cave, the mouth covered by bushes. Pushing them aside, she went in and began getting cozy. She placed all the rocks within the cave in a neat circle in the back and moved to get the fire ready.

She placed the log in the middle. Then she took the survival guide and ripped it into shreds, placing it all on top of the log. Then, making sure the puffle was right next to the log, gave it the puffle-o.

It burst into fire again, flew around, and when it landed again in the same spot it launched from, the log caught on fire. She placed the pan on the fire and waited until the water had boiled. Now it was much cleaner and she drank it, quenching her thirst. And then she put the fish on the fire, taking it off when it was nicely cooked and ate it.

The black puffle just watched her the entire time. But she paid no attention to it as she started to get sleepy. She closed her eyes.

Tahirih awoke to hear a strange sound. Her fire was burnt into ashes and the black puffle was gone.

She waddled out of the cave and found a penguin descending from the air on his jet pack. He was a red penguin, wore a pair of shades, an earpiece, and a suit. Tahirih could very well tell that he was an agent. He would most likely be excited to tell everyone of how he'd saved her. But he just smiled kindly to her.

She noted now that it was almost mid-afternoon, a day and a quarter since she'd taken the mission. Jimmy was most likely going to kill her.

"I saw the smoke from your fire and came to see who was out here. What happened?" the agent asked.

"I was testing G's sled and it broke. I crashed nearby and decided to wait for help." Tahirih said.

"You definitely did the right thing. From the look of it you did all the necessary tasks for survival. I'm very impressed!" the agent said, truly amazed and, almost, speechless. "I will take you back to G now."

"Ok, thanks!" Tahirih said gratefully.

"You're welcome, I'm just glad that you're safe. Let's go!" the agent said. He lifted her onto his shoulders and jumped into the air.

Back at the Sport Shop, Tahirih met back with G who looked fairly worried.

"You're back! I was starting to worry. You were gone much longer than I had expected. What happened?" G asked.

"The sled fell apart and I crashed. The survival tips helped, but the sled needs work!" Tahirih told him.

"I'm glad you are safe. I'll keep working on the sled. If you ever want to test another prototype, just come back." G said.

'Not likely,' Tahirih thought to herself. But she instead said, "Ok. Good-bye!"

"Thanks again Agent. Good-bye." G said.

At the end of her mission, Tahirih earned another medal and letter. The medal was gold and showed a fire burning two logs. Underneath it said: Wilderness Survival Medal.

"Awarded for exemplary wilderness survival skills after the sled testing accident." Tahirih read aloud with a smile.

Then she looked to the letter:

Well-done Agent! Using parts of the broken sled to make a fishing rod is exactly what being a great agent is all about – thinking creatively! Your ingenuity so impressed me; I just had to tell you myself. In fact, your resourcefulness reminds me a bit of myself when I first started out.

Congratulations! You are a definite asset to this agency and the future development of my sled.

I'm sure we'll see more of each other in the future. Keep up the excellent work.

- Secret Agent G


	9. Girlfriend

Tahirih got home and was almost slammed into the wall by Jimmy, but she had dodged it easily. "What the –?! I didn't know you _meant_ it when you said you were going to kill me!" Tahirih said in shock.

"You have been gone for _twenty six_ hours! What happened?" Jimmy asked, a little madly.

"There was a slight accident." Tahirih said shyly.

"Slight?!" Jimmy asked.

"Hold on, hold on, your blowing this way out of proportion. I'm here, right?" Tahirih asked him, which somewhat calmed him down.

"What happened?" he asked, less angry now.

"First I want to know what's happened to you," Tahirih said, "You're being very protective right now and I want to know why."

He was silent a moment before saying. "I broke up with Tias."

"Oh," she said in shock, "I'm-"

"Don't say you're sorry, please," he said. "That will make me feel less okay about breaking up with her."

"W-why did you break up with her?" Tahirih asked, noticing he was waddling closer to her.

"Enough of me," Jimmy said, "What happened with you?"

Tahirih wasn't sure she could find the words. So she took out the medal and the letter and handed them to Jimmy, sitting down on the couch and feeling a little overwhelmed.

"Wow! Tahirih! G views you as an asset, that's amazing, no one gets that within their first year as an agent. Well done!" Jimmy said, but then he became stern as he sat down next to her.

"All right," Tahirih said, "So what are you going to do to me? You _did_ say before that you would kill me. I don't know now if you really meant it, but-"

Jimmy cut her off by kissing her. She was frozen for a second after he did it, but then ended up kissing back, feeling dizzy. Was she really kissing the guy she'd been friends with since a young age?

He pulled away, but still held fast to her. His flippers held to the sides of her cheeks and he looked her in the eyes.

"Now I know…" Tahirih said dazedly.

Jimmy nodded. "I know you noticed how I was acting with Tias, but I had just wanted to see how you would react to me trying to keep us together... Neither of us really liked each other anymore, and you could see her trying to get away from me."

"So we're both observant," Tahirih said.

"Right… well the only thing I can think of is for you to be my girlfriend. Would you?" Jimmy asked.

"S-sure, I w-would." Tahirih stuttered. She was lost beyond imagination at how this had come up, but she didn't mind much. He _was_ pretty much the only guy she ever talked to on a regular basis whether school, work, or just hanging out.

Jimmy smiled, and then stood up. "Let's get you cleaned up. Do you know how dirty you are right now?"

"I haven't looked in a mirror since yesterday." Tahirih retorted as he helped her up.

Tahirih put her new award on the shelf while Jimmy put the new letter on the bulletin board. She felt a chill go down her back as she remembered his eyes as he looked at her, and of the day before when he did her hair.

"Then, tell me everything that happened from the moment you left the igloo." Jimmy said, pulling her over to the wash basin she'd placed in her secret place so she could wash the spray substance out of her hair. He took the scrunchie out and allowed her to wash her hair out, her head bent over the basin.

She explained everything that had happened, and as she was drying her hair she finished up with the red agent coming to her rescue.

"Wh-wh-whoa!" Jimmy said suddenly. "A red penguin agent came to your rescue? With a suit, shades, and a jet pack?"

"Yeah, just as I described. Why?" Tahirih asked.

"That's Jet Pack Guy!" Jimmy said.

"You know him well?" she asked.

"Yeah, and he knows me well. I bet he's going to tell me about it when I go to HQ. Though, don't worry, he's not the kind to gloat." Jimmy said hurriedly.

"I'm not worried about him gloating," Tahirih said, "Agent Undefined doesn't mind. But if someone gloats about saving Tahirih, there's going to be some problems. Besides, I was stuck in the wilderness, I couldn't have gotten out without his help."

Jimmy chuckled appreciatively. "Glad to know."

"Did my parents ever ask about me?" she asked curiously.

"They came in here at one point... I hid in your secret office behind the fireplace. They talked quietly to each other and decided that you and me went out somewhere. We'll have to tell them a story later. Keep going."

She finished up to where she got her awards. Then she waited for questions about her experience. Tahirih knew all of it was not quite clear, of how she happened to just fit right in with her environment. And she even had a feeling that Jimmy was going to say something about the puffle, which he did.

"Like I have said time and time again, you are _great_ with puffles!" Jimmy said, waving his wings dramatically. Tahirih shooed him out so she could change, but they still conversed.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah I got it, and luckily I am because without that puffle I wouldn't have gotten the fire started." Tahirih said, wondering to herself about what she could've used to start the fire besides the help of the puffle.

"That's right, so if I'm stuck in the wilderness, then I would want you to be there with me!" Jimmy said.

"Just as I did," Tahirih said truthfully, "Wishing for you and your truck to get me out."

"Ah, that's true. The only way to find the way out is through my old truck. But luckily you were rescued without my searching. I don't know how I would've thought to find you in that forest." Jimmy said.

"Yeah, especially since I've never been in that neck of the woods." Tahirih said, waddling out and taking a seat on the couch.

Jimmy was pacing around, deep in thought about Tahirih's experience. Or as she thought he was, she couldn't possibly see into his mind as she thought about before. How had he changed the subject so quickly from love to her adventure? She couldn't ponder it without asking herself why they hadn't started dating long before this.

As if he'd read her mind, Jimmy suddenly turned toward her and sat next to her, putting his wing around her. While she snuggled close, just leaning on him, he spoke. "I suppose that while you were out in the woods, something made me realize that I was sitting here in your room waiting for you. It sort of surprised me to think that I've known you all this time, been more open with you than anyone else, and I haven't thought about the fact that you only talk to me."

"Not just you," Tahirih said smugly, "Of course, we must account for family members, and co-workers at both the Pet Shop and the PSA."

Jimmy chuckled. "Oh, of course, how could I have forgotten?"


End file.
